


Cursed Encounter

by Faded_and_Fleeting



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Day 1:Dynamics//Trust, Demon Deals, Demon/Human Interactions, Demon/Royalty AU, M/M, Sheith Month 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 17:39:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15200009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faded_and_Fleeting/pseuds/Faded_and_Fleeting
Summary: Keith’s father is poisoned during an attack on the palace that leaves him bedridden. He calls for the Celestial Flame’s most notable healers in an attempt to save him, but to no avail. He chooses instead to barter with a demon kept prisoner in the palace dungeons.





	Cursed Encounter

**Author's Note:**

> Notes prior to reading: A Sun is the equivalent of a Day. A Moon is the equivalent of a month.  
> There are brief mentions of palm slitting. Proceed with care.

“My Lord, you cannot be serious. You—” **  
**

“I do not wish to hear another word on the matter, Allura. I’ve made my decision and I intend to follow through with it,” Keith responds, voice firm. His eyes flicker to the woman across from him. She stands rigid, shoulders squared, lips pulled taut as a spark of myriad of emotions flickers across her eyes. He knows this expression. She wants to protest.

Just as her lips part, Keith holds up a hand to silence her.

“I will not have you questioning my judgment,” he quips. “I know that I’m getting myself into. I do not need your advice on the matter.”

Allura speaks anyway, defiant as ever. “I will not have you making a blood pact with a demon! I swore an oath to your father. Never would the hand of a demon so much as graze the ends of your hair. Never would his claw so much as point in your direction.”

Keith sighs, brows knitting together in both frustration and exhaustion as he feels a headache coming on. “Allura, you— What else would you have me do?”

“Have the palace physicians not already summoned the nation’s best healers?” Allura asks, voice softening. “Give them a bit of time, and I’m sure your father will come around.”

“My father has been bedridden for nearly seven Moons and yet you still insist we give them time?” Keith scoffs, lips curling in disgust and minor outrage. “My father may not live to see another Sun, and you tell me to wait? Allura, these physicians are not competent enough to cure him because the thing that ails him is not something human-made.”

“There is no reason that we cannot summon more healers, My Lord! There is absolutely no need to consult a demon about this matter.”

“I am going down to see the imprisoned demon, Allura, and you will not stop me. My father’s life carries more weight to me than my own, and I would gladly leap into the depths of Hell to save his life.”

—

Keith waits until nightfall before he travels down into the forbidden depths of his home. Most of the palace is asleep by now, save for the guards on patrol. He has to be quick. The patrol switches shifts in less than ten minutes. He’ll have about five to slip into the dungeon entry before it’s inaccessible. Turning right down a narrow corridor, Keith all but sprints. He has to get there. Dark knightly statues flank either side and cast grizzly shadows along the smooth, tile floor. Their swords are at the ready, gripped tightly between cold, obsidian fingers, ready to strike. Their lips are frozen in time forever parted in feral war cries.

The shadows creep into the sides of his vision, thick and suffocating. He hardly makes it to the door before he hears footsteps approaching. He stuffs his hand into his pocket, fishing out a set of keys that he fumbles with miserably. Once he’s got his hands on the key to the dungeons, he shoves it into the keyhole and makes quick work of the lock and yanks the door open.

A musty, dank odor assaults his nostrils the moment he enters the pathway. The footsteps behind him grow closer. Keith pulls the door shut and locks it behind him, shoving the keys back into his pocket afterward. He inhales deeply and carefully steps forward. Aside from an eerily loud echo that bounces off the walls, he hears nothing. He continues his descent, following a moist, narrow corridor that opens up to a long, downward spiraling staircase.

He takes a glance behind him. He can turn back now. He can accept his father’s fate and step into his rightful place as king, but he’s not ready. He’s not ready to govern the people. Not yet.

He takes the stairs.

—

The dimension he steps into upon reaching the ground level is nothing like the narrow corridor above. The scent within these halls hits Keith full force; a grotesque mixture of something rotten and something dead. Heavy chains hang along the walls, with hammered metal shackles on the floor. The darkness that looms a few feet ahead beckons to him.

He continues forward, drowning out the pitiful wails and screams of some of the current prisoners he passes by. At the end of the long corridor, he senses and increasingly tense magical barrier. It surrounds a lone steel chamber, a mere sliver of light in the dreaded, inky blackness. It’s secluded farther away from the rest of the prison inmates, and Keith just knows that that is where his current target is being held.

Keith lifts his hands and seeks to press them to the barrier, but a hand on his shoulder has him reeling back.

He whirls, hand flying to the sword sheathed at his side, before a gentle voice soothes him.

“Do not strike! It is only me, My Lord.” It’s Allura.

Keith exhales a staggering breath as he takes his hand from his sword.

“What are you doing down here?” he hisses.

Allura sighs, and even in the dark Keith can tell she’s giving him that look. “I should be the one asking you that question.”

“You know the answer to that already,” Keith snaps. “I’m not having this discussion. I am going to see this demon, and I am going to get him to aid me in the curing of my father’s ailment.”

“Is there no other way? Can we not summon other healers?”

“No, Allura. They will not help.” Keith turns away from her, and just as he’s about to place his hand over the barrier, she speaks.

“Then at least let me stay beside you. I don’t trust whatever is behind this barrier.”

Keith huffs. “Fine.”

He presses his hands to the barrier, and it dissipates almost instantly. He pushes open the heavy steel door and approaches the separate cell that resides within the back of this chamber, and every hair on the back of his neck stands as the pure, raw demonic energy from within overcomes him.

This is no ordinary demon, he thinks as he takes a good look at the figure behind bars. Even in the darkness, Keith can make out a few of its features. Its hair is quite long, the ends just barely brushing past broad, heavy shoulders, only disturbed by the twisted horns of a ram jutting from either side of its skull. A dark shadow looms over its back. It shudders, the sound that follows sounding similar to that of wings. He can just barely make out the hard edges of a body trained to fight, a body trained to kill. Its hands and feet are weighed down by heavy shackles that Keith just knows aren’t enough to hold a demon like this hostage.

It moves, lifting its head. Even with the dim torchlight, Keith can hardly make out its face.

“So, you’ve finally come to visit me,” it rumbles. “I should be flattered, but I do not believe this is a social call.”

The demon stands, approaches the bars with slow, deliberate steps. The shackles bound to its ankles clatter with each movement, the sound unreasonably loud within these desolate halls. Keith takes an immediate step backward, and it makes the demon laugh.

“As if I had the desire to harm you.” It takes another step closer, and Keith can see it now. A rigid face in the torch-light, unshaven, slightly unkempt. Its eyes are hard, soulless as they peer down at Keith, who feels a sharp jolt of fear shoot down his spine. “You come to me seeking a favor, I already know.”

Keith blinks. “How did you—”

“I am not clueless, human,” the demon cuts him off sharply.

“Then you know of what I wish from you,” Keith says.

The demon chuckles, its lips curling into a hellish grin. “But of course. You seek to cure your dear father from his poisoning. I’d hate to break it to you, Your Highness, but there isn’t much I can do for you.”

Keith inhales sharply. “But you—”

“—not in here, at least.”

Allura immediately grabs Keith’s shoulder. “Do not trust him, My Lord. He merely wishes to find a means of escape.”

Keith casts a look of doubt at the demon. It  simply stares back.

“She’s right. You shouldn’t trust me. After all, no demon’s help is free. Each favor comes with a price,” it laughed. “And besides, why should I be the one to help the very man that ordered my capture?”

Keith has no answer to that, because the demon is correct. Keith even admits to himself that he would rather rot in a prison cell than ever assist the person responsible for locking him in one. The demon seems to catch on to Keith’s realization, if the grotesque smirk spreading across his lips is anything to go by.

“I think I’ve made my point clear, human. However, you still look troubled.” The demon leans forward, leveling himself with Keith’s eyes so he can stare the prince directly in the face. “I may not be willing to help the king, but you, however, pique my interest. There’s a certain fire in your eyes that I haven’t seen in over a millenia. Something that I wish to break.” The demon straightens up, his face once more becoming serious. “If you wish for my assistance, I cannot be kept in this cell. You will release me of my shackles and take me to your father. Once I have seen what it is that ails him so, I will save him, but in return, you owe me one request, and regardless of what I ask of you, you cannot refuse. Should you decide to go back on your blood oath, your soul will become mine, and I will devour you.”

Keith hesitates to speak. He realizes that once he agrees to this deal, he’s bound to a demon by blood until the day he dies. It’s a risk, but it’s a risk he’s willing to take. Anything to save his father.

After a few moments, he silently nods and steps forward and curls his hands around the bars. Any remaining barrier dissolves instantly. He fishes the dungeon keys from his pocket, hands shaking as he unlocks the heavy padlock and pulls the cell door open. The demon steps out, towering over Keith by several inches. He swallows as he works to undo the shackles that bind the demon’s hands and feet.

“My Lord,” Allura whispers, “I hope you understand what you are getting into.”

Keith turns to glance at her briefly. “I’ll be okay.”

He looks back up at the demon, whose face perks up in an eerie grin, sharp canines bared and menacing.

“So it seems we have a deal,” he rumbles. “Now, give me your right hand.”

Keith outstretches his hand as demanded of him and watches as the demon lifts a sharp nail to his palm and quickly makes a slash across the width of it. Small, dark droplets of fresh blood seep from the wound. He watches as the demon does the same to its own right hand and offers it up to Keith.

“We shake on blood and our deal is settled.”

Keith gives him his hand.

The demon purrs. “Good, now take me to him.”

—

“As I’d thought, this is the work of Abbadon’s Curse.”

Keith looks up at the demon who now stands by his father’s bedside. He can’t even bear to look at his father, seeing how pale and haggard he looks with sunken cheeks and blank stares. Heinous black patterns spread over his skin in twisted patterns, following the entire network of his veins, tainting his mind and his blood.

The demon straightens himself up and turns to Keith. “I will need to leave the palace to gather the materials needed for his cure. If it is not made fresh, it will not work. No human could ever hope to retrieve these items in time, especially not those specifically found in the Underworld” He raises his right hand, displays the fresh cut on his palm. “Our bond is bound by blood. I cannot go back on my word. I will return with the cure for your father, and you will be able to put me back in the cell should it make you more comfortable. After that, I shall redeem my favor.”

Allura eyes him skeptically. “How do we know this is not merely an escape tactic?”

“I do not need you to question me, woman,” the demon replies. He looks at Keith. “What I need is for you to trust that I will not go back on my word, that I will return. Can you do that?”

Keith nods slowly. “We had a deal. I will hold you to it.”

The demon smiles. “Good. Now, we don’t have much time. Judging by how the curse has spread, he has only three Suns before he passes. You can slow this by giving him herbal tea mixed with one drop of the venom of a black mamba.”

Allura chokes. “You wish to poison His Highness further?”

“No,” the demon responds, not taking his eyes off of Keith, “I intend to slow the spread of the curse as much as possible to buy myself enough time to get the cure.”

“Then I’ll leave you to it,” Keith says quietly. Allura gives him an incredulous look the moment the demon vanishes from their sight.

—

A day passes. Keith spends it at his father’s bedside.

The demon does not return that night.

—

“My Lord, I firmly believe you’ve made a mistake. That demon will not return,” Allura says to him as they make their way to the king’s bedside.

Keith sits on the edge of his father’s bed and helps him nurse the tea infusion.

“I trust him, Allura. He’ll be back.”

The demon does not return the second night.

—

The nobles are furious upon the revelation of Keith’s deal. They come to him in fits of outrage and call him a fool for ever believing the word of a demon over theirs. He ignores them all and continues to give his father the tea infusion the demon told him to use.

—

The sun is setting. The shadows of the night slowly make their way into the king’s bedchamber. Keith still sits by his father’s bedside waiting. The nobles have left. Allura too. He’s alone and still waiting. He refuses to think that, perhaps, the others might have been right about the demon not returning. They are not the ones who made the blood oath. They would not understand.

As the last of the light fades and the night takes over, a dark figure manifests in the corner of the king’s bedchamber. Keith’s lips part in shock and disbelief.

He’s returned.

—

After Keith’s father has taken the cure that the demon brought back, Keith takes the demon back down into the dungeons, much to the entire palace’s relief. He replaces the heavy shackles and seals the cell shut. As he fidgets with the padlock and puts it back into place, he can feel the demon’s eyes on him. The sheer force of the demon’s stare intimidates Keith to his core, but he stands upright, now ready to settle his part of the deal.

“You have kept to your word, and now I will keep to mine. What is it that you would want from me?” Keith asks him.

The demon smirks. “Do you trust me?”

That again. Keith shrugs. “I do not know you enough to say that I trust you unconditionally, but you have earned my respect if anything. Thank you for saving my father.”

“Well, that isn’t any fun,” the demon chides. “After all I’ve done for you, and yet you still don’t trust me.” It smiles at him. “Perhaps we can change that. You recall the night you came to me for my aid, do you not?”

Keith nods.

“You’ve piqued my interest since day one, and I would love to get to know you better.” The demon leans forward. “For my request, I want you to come down and spend one full night with me in this cell each week, from dusk until dawn, and you will do this for as long as I am in this cell. If you happen to be so unlucky, you’ll be seeing me once per week for the rest of your days.”

At this request, Keith swallows hard.

“Do I make myself clear? Once a week, one full night.”

“I— Yes,” Keith stammers. He quickly turns to leave, but the demon stops him.

“Before you go, I would also like to know your name.”

Keith shudders. “I— It’s Keith.”

“Nice to meet you, Keith. I’m Takashi. I trust we’ll be seeing more of each other soon.”

The demon’s—Takashi’s—sinister grin is the last thing Keith sees before he closes the cell off completely.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first @sheithmonth prompt and my first work of fiction for the VLD fandom as a whole. It is a completely unbeta’d and therefore any mistakes or inconsistencies found within are purely my responsibility.


End file.
